Climate Strike Leaders: UN Climate Summit Must End Fossil Fuels

After millions marched in the streets on Friday, climate activists young and old are looking for a clear thing from Monday's special UN Climate Summit: action on fossil fuels.

"It's time to stop pouring fuel on the fire," said May Boeve, 350.org executive director. "We want countries to put forward plans that end the use of fossil fuels, starting with a ban on all new extraction and quickly moving to a total phaseout. The science is clear that nothing less will meet the Paris goals of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees."

The latest IPCC report concluded that emissions from fossil fuels needed to be cut in half by 2030 and completely eliminated by 2050. Even those actions would still leave the world only 50-50 chance of staying below 1.5 degrees. Many scientists and advocates are calling for far faster action to address the climate emergency.

A recently released summary of a highly anticipated report by the Stockholm Environment Institute research released by the Stockholm Environment Institute September 18th 2019, shows that the world is on track to produce 50% more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with a 2degC pathway and, 120% more than would be consistent with a 1.5degC pathway.

"It isn't an oversight that the words 'fossil fuels' don't appear once in the Paris Agreement," said Boeve. "The industry worked hard to make it so, which is exactly why we've been calling on the UN and member nations to kick fossil fuel companies out of the climate talks. This should be a forum for people, not polluters. Countries need to choose whose side they're on."

350.org is part of a growing coalition effort to kick oil, gas and coal companies out of the UN Climate Talks and similar fora where climate action is discussed.

Actions kicked of Sunday evening at the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative meeting that will be taking place on the sidelines of the UN Summit.